Priority Alpha
by Septdeneuf
Summary: All his life Kurt'd been told to run as far as he could when they came to take him for his powers, but leaving all ties behind isn't quite so easy anymore. And when he realizes his Dad isn't quite who he thought he was, who can he still trust? AU
1. Chapter 1

A/N: Started this before Kurt came back to McKinley, so that's the timeline. Spoilers up to Original Song, but not really in the focus of this story.

Response to a prompt at the glee_angst_meme.

—

As he pulled up into the driveway, Kurt was in a good mood the likes of which didn't happen too often to him. He was pretty much over the Warbler's loss at sectionals by now, which was both helped by the fact that practices were suddenly a lot less strict and a lot more fun, and the fact that he had spent the entire lunch hour making out with Blaine in an unused study lounge.

He lifted his hand to his neck, fingers grazing lightly over the hickey that was just hidden underneath his collar. When he had realized what Blaine's actions (that he hadn't protested at the time) were going to lead to this, he had given a rather undignified yelp, and given Blaine a lecture about how sensitive his skin was. Which Blaine had endured with that lovable grin of his, that made it impossible to be angry at him.

So Kurt had decided to get him back by returning the favor. And Blaine had apparently not noticed that it had been enough to make a hickey form, since he took no measures to hide it.

And that had earned Kurt a stern talking to by Wes, not to disfigure their lead singer "even if he begs for it". The word choice, combined with the look on Wes' face had made everyone in the vicinity burst out laughing. Except for Blaine, who actually blushed a little, but didn't try anything to hide the mark even after that talk.

The idea that his boyfriend was walking around school, going about his daily business right now with a hickey, that Kurt had left there, was enough to make him grin. The fact alone that he could finally call someone his boyfriend was enough to shake up the butterflies in his stomach.

As he walked to the front door sorting through his keys, he noticed a car parked on the other side of the road. It was a pretty normal, dark grey sedan, that in and of itself didn't really draw any attention, but something about its presence there gave Kurt pause.

There was no one inside it, though, so he simply unlocked the door and slipped into the house.

Usually he would've just called that he was home at something close to the top of his lungs, but something stopped him. Something intangible was off about the whole scene, even though nothing looked out of place.

Still, he decided to check first, before he made is presence known. Just in case his feeling was correct.

He reached out with his thoughts, to see if anyone else was in the house. He found Finn's messy thought pattern, which matched with the fact that his car was outside, and he started to relax.

But something was off about it, and he couldn't quite put his finger on what the problem was. Until he noticed two other thought patterns in the vicinity, both of which were ordered and incredibly disciplined.

Military.

He pulled back as though he'd been burned, and could only hope that they weren't trained to notice telepathic intrusions, or at least hadn't noticed the slight brush against their minds.

He had to get out of there. He was just about to turn around and leave, when he realized that going through the front door right away again would probably get noticed, if those two weren't the only agents that were there. And somehow he doubted they'd gotten that lucky.

He made his way as quietly as possible to the garage door. From there he could slip into the Navigator quickly and speed off before they found him. It wasn't a perfect plan, but maybe he'd get lucky. He'd have to find a way to get a different ride after a while, but maybe that could be solved, if he just made it to his Dad's garage. Assuming they hadn't already started looking for him there.

His dad had alway warned him, that something like this might be a possibility, someone could come to look for him, but having someone actually in the house after not having faced any of that danger in so many years, made him feel hot and cold at the same time, and he noticed he was sweating.

His dad's instructions for a case like that had been clear. Just get out, and don't let them catch you. Even if they ended up having to build a completely new life somewhere else, it was better than getting caught.

And he would do just that.

Except…

Finn was alone in the house with extremely dangerous people, who were there because of something that he had no idea was even possible. His dad had always said that if it came for the worst not to wait for anything or anybody and just get out.

But now Kurt didn't feel like he could just do that.

He concentrated, and carefully zeroed in on Finn's thoughts, avoiding touching the other two minds in the room. Apparently Finn was in his bedroom, his eyes closed, for some reason.

Even though he had always refrained from using his abilities on anyone in his environment, he did know how Finn's normal thought processes felt, even if he didn't know any details. And something was clearly wrong with them, now. Finn's thinking was always a little disorganized, seeing how he was easily distracted, but now it was as if he couldn't hold on to any conscious thought for more than a few seconds. Everything seemed muddled, and as Kurt dug deeper than he himself was strictly comfortable with it didn't seem to get any clearer.

"Dudes, what do you want?", Finn said sluggishly, and Kurt was deep enough in Finn's mind to unconciously mouth the words along. If he was that deep in already, why couldn't he access the memories that lead Finn to that moment? They had done something, clearly. Maybe drugs?

The men were answering, but it was difficult for Kurt to make out, because Finn wasn't really listening. Kurt really didn't like invading his stepbrother like that, but he needed to know. He nudged Finn's mind a little, to pay some more attention.

He really shouldn't be using his powers to mess with someone's mind, and he felt terrible about it, but since Finn's mind had been messed with, already, it wasn't that objectionable, now was it?

"Are you sure this is the right place?", one of them said, and Kurt really wished that Finn's eyes were open, so he could get a visual to go along with the voice. But even if he used his powers to make Finn do that, he wasn't sure if Finn would be responsive. The lack of awareness in him was really rather worrying.

"This is were all the clues lead us. It has to be here."

"Well this doesn't really look like a super powered killing machine. More like a tall, goofy teenager", the first man said.

"Okay, first of all? Get your language together. We're not looking for a super powered killing machine, we're looking for an abilities enhanced experiment, which goes by the label 734. And second of all, you should know as well as I do that there's no specific way any of them look. Outside appearances mean absolutely nothing when it comes to judging the experiments." Kurt only now realized that this voice belonged to a woman. And he already didn't like her. He remembered that number. He remembered it well, and this was all the confirmation he needed, to know that his initial fears were right, all along.

Then again, he hadn't really doubted that. What other reason would two specially trained military agents have to invade their home? Certainly not to have a tea party.

"Okay, but if he his the long lost prodigy, then why was it so easy to take him out? Shouldn't he have tried to use his abilities by now?"

"It's entirely possible that those abilities are not offensive in nature. The brief didn't say. The experiment was never completely analyzed before it was abducted." It. Of course it wasn't surprising they would call him that, since all of these people were specifically trained not to view him and others like him as humans, but hearing it now was incredibly unsettling for Kurt.

"So, what, we just bring it in, and hope for the best?"

"They'll be able to fully analyze whether this is the right subject back at the base."

"But if it isn't, and we take him, we could alert the real experiment to the situation by doing that."

Kurt almost lost his mental connection when he heard that, because his own thoughts were racing too fast. This was his get out of jail free card. He could run away right now, and they would take Finn, never knowing they had the wrong person, and Kurt would be far away and hopefully well hidden from them by the time they realized they hadn't found the right boy. It was perfect.

Almost.

Except for the fact that Kurt had some ideas what testing Finn to find out whether he had powers or not entailed, and even if Kurt didn't remember much from back then, he knew that letting Finn live through that would at the very least smother him in guilty conscience.

And if they found out Finn wasn't who they were looking for… There was every chance they'd simply get rid of him the way they did with 'experiments' that didn't have any powers.

If Kurt left now, he would most likely be scot free.

And also condemning his stepbrother to almost certain death.

His hand tightened on the doorknob, and he pushed it open, making his way back into the house. This was dumb. Beyond dumb, really, getting close to the realm of suicidal but he quietly made his way up the stairs, towards his enemies, with no real plan in mind. His best bet was probably manipulating their thoughts, but with the training these people received it was far from a safe bet. He could also try to use his other ability on Finn, but there was no way to predict what would happen if he did that. It could also lead to some misconceptions that could put Finn into even more danger, so Kurt decided against it.

So, mind bending. On two highly trained military operatives at a time. When he had barely ever had any occasion to practice that skill.

As he opened the door into Finn's room, he had a hard time hearing the noise the door made, over the beating of his own heart. Both of the agents wheeled around at the noise, and looked at him.

"And who are you?", the woman said. Neither of them looked all that special, both in a business outfit that didn't suggest anything sinister, but he saw her reaching into her blazer, which he was pretty sure was bound to contain a gun.

"You've got the wrong house", Kurt said, in a tone that surprised himself with its calmness. He entered her mind, and was surprised to find that she barely had any defenses in place. The organization apparently really didn't know what his abilities were, and he took full advantage of that. It took a lot less effort than he would've expected to convince her, and he quickly turned his attention to her partner, who didn't look as suspicious as she had.

Kurt was also surprised by having to suppress the urge to say: "These aren't the droids you are looking for." He'd only seen that movie once, and not really payed that close attention.

"You should go", he said sternly, and both of them left the room with a complacent look on their face that would've been somewhat creepy if he hadn't known what made them look like that. He did his best to muddle their memories of what he and Finn looked like, but he knew he couldn't do too much, because that would be too suspicious.

Since he also didn't really know what he was doing, manipulating someone's memories.

He let out a breath he wasn't quite aware of holding, when he heard the front door slam shut, and he couldn't find their thought patterns in the house anymore.

He turned his attention to Finn, who now looked like he had just fallen asleep playing Xbox, which was running on his TV. The fact that he was drooling and there was a small but shiny metal thing attached to his temple gave away that that wasn't the case. Kurt went over to remove the metal thing, which went surprisingly easy.

He looked at it closely, and almost immediately got a headache when he held it too close to his face. He dropped it and stepped on it for good measure.

"Huh?", Finn groaned sleepily and Kurt turned to look at him.

"Are you okay?", he asked.

"Hm? Uh… mhm," Finn said eloquently, and Kurt took it as a sign that was at least not particularly bad.

"We need to leave. Take whatever you absolutely need, and then let's go", Kurt instructed and ten went into his own room. He took his bag out of the closet, that he'd been keeping packed just in case a situation like this ever occurred, where he needed to leave suddenly.

He really only had been keeping it, because it had become a habit. He still had trouble processing that his nightmares had finally become a reality.

It had all seemed so far away. He hadn't heard anything about people looking for him ever since they left, he'd barely ever used his abilities, and it had made it so easy to forget that he even had them, and just feel like a normal teenage boy. Now, though…

They couldn't risk staying. He knew his manipulation had been sloppy, and either the two would realize themselves that something wasn't quite right, or some supervisors of theirs would realize something was off.

He honestly didn't want to drag Finn into this, had never intended to get anyone involved in any of this mess, not that he had really been planning for something like this, but he knew it was too late to keep him out of it. He wasn't at all sure, if he had made them forget their faces, and if they did remember Finn, he was not only in danger, but possibly also a liability if Kurt left without him. He threw some toiletries in his bag, unwilling to think about the fact, that if they really didn't have a chance to come back, he'd have to seriously cut down on his moisturizing routine.

He went back into Finn's room, where he found that his stepbrother had only managed to get up and put a hand to his forehead.

"What happened?", he asked groggily, but at least he was a bit more coherent than before. Whatever that device was, it was obviously not meant to cause any long term damage.

"We need to go", Kurt said sternly.

"Why?" Finn looked around the room confusedly. "And where did those people go? Wait… there were people here, but they weren't supposed to…"

Kurt managed to find an empty bag and began to throw some of Finn's clothes into it. He didn't pay too much attention to which pieces he picked out, since he didn't have the time, and to be honest, Finn's wardrobe was way too bland to make any of what he wore more of a priority.

"They're not here anymore, but they might come back, so we have to go", Kurt said, and went into the bathroom to retrieve Finn's toothbrush.

"Shouldn't we… like, call the police?", Finn asked, and looked around the room slowly. "Doesn't look like they took anything…"

"Calling the police wouldn't be a good idea", Kurt said, and zipped Finn's bag. "Come on, let's go."

"Go where?", Finn asked, and looked up at Kurt.

"I don't know yet, but we can't stay", Kurt answered, and took Finn's and to lead him out of the room. The taller teen was still too out of it to complain about it.

"But…", he said weakly, but didn't seem to know where his thoughts were actually leading him.

Kurt led him down the stairs, and was impressed that he managed to navigate those. It seemed a little risky to him. He went to the front door to check, and was relieved to see that the grey sedan wasn't there anymore. There was no way to be sure it was their car, but the assumption seemed more or less reasonable.

He ushered Finn out the door, and locked it behind them even though he was sure that if those people wanted to get in, that wouldn't do anything to stop them. He threw both bags into the trunk of his car, and then went to push Finn, who was still busy blinking in the sunlight onto the passenger seat. He pulled out of the driveway, only to realize that he didn't really know where they should go.

His Dad would probably know what to do, but Kurt had a bad feeling about calling. He didn't know for sure if they were listening to their calls, but he had no way to know that they weren't. If they really weren't sure if they were the family they were looking for, he might get lucky, but he wasn't comfortable risking it.

He made up his mind and set off in the direction of his Dad's garage. If they could talk in person, they could probably figure out what to do, and to be honest, Kurt was eager to give away the responsibility in this situation. He had been told they could be coming, but that didn't mean he was prepared to deal with it, no matter if he had any super powers or not.

They got there quickly, since their new house was chosen in part because it was near the garage. Finn was mumbling something all the way there, but Kurt didn't pay attention. He really hoped that his stepbrother's confusion was only a result of that weird device, and not because Kurt had been digging through his brain.

Kurt got out of the car, and Finn followed him, slowly but surely getting a little steadier on his feet.

They went in through the office door, and Kurt was surprised to see that the lights were off. And it was also very quiet. Except for the pained yelp Finn made when he stubbed his toe on the potted plant near the entrance.

"Sh!", Kurt said and put a finger to his lips. Finn looked at him in confusion, but didn't question the instruction.

Kurt quietly made his way to the garage itself, and was greeted with complete silence. The lights were off, and none of the characteristic work noises filled the air. He again decided against calling out, and reached out with his mind, only to find the garage completely empty.

"Why is no one here?", Finn asked. "Isn't it, like, a weekday? They should all be working, right?"

And Finn was right, of course. And the emptiness was making Kurt very nervous.


	2. Chapter 2

The sensible thing to do was advance quietly and check out the situation, as long as they had no idea what they were dealing with. There were a million possible explanations for the shop being empty, many devoid of conspiracies, but without knowing it was better to err on the side of caution.

Alternatively, one could also take a somewhat drugged Finn Hudson into a garage full of car parts, tools, and some pieces of furniture, all conveniently located to trip over.

After the inevitable crash had resounded through the garage, Kurt gave up all pretenses of sneaking, and went back to check, if Finn had broken anything, but Frankenteen had already managed to pick himself up off the floor.

Kurt looked around the garage more carefully now, but also moving more quickly. Things didn't seem to be out of place, and he could find no evidence of any sinister reasons for the absence. But he couldn't find anything to tell him why no one was there, either.

He pulled out his cellphone and stared at it undecided for a while. He was quite honestly at a loss as to what he should be doing next, and he couldn't just ride around town looking for his Dad randomly. And even though he had been told more than once, should worst come to worst, to just make a run for it on his own, but he had no way of knowing if that was actually the case.

And honestly, when talking about it in theory, it had seemed somewhat reasonable, but now, faced with the reality of it, he realized he wasn't exactly ready to run away, start a new life and stay hidden indefinitely.

So screw plans.

He hit his Dad's name on the display and pressed the phone to his ear, listening anxiously to the dial tone. No answer. Which, again, could mean any number of things, but all the scenarios his mind was drawn to weren't exactly favorable.

And there went that idea. Because what options did he have? Just go back home and hope his attempts at manipulating the agents' thoughts were enough to keep them away from Lima forever, pretending that nothing was wrong.

Kurt just knew he was probably not that lucky.

Finn's cell phone started ringing. As he watched the taller teen pick up, Kurt had to hope against hope that Finn wouldn't say anything stupid about the situation they were in.

"Hey… Puck", Finn said, slowly and still seemed a little too dazed to carry a conversation.

"Yeah… don't know", Finn said and Kurt got the impression that he wasn't really listening to what Puck was saying.

Kurt resumed looking around the garage. The only theory he could come up with as to his Dad's absence had a lot to do with the people he and Finn had encountered before, but why would everyone else have left as well?

And it didn't look like they left in the middle of doing things, either. It looked a lot like it did when they closed up for the evening, everything put into place more or less neatly. When they were in the middle of work, or left for a lunch break, things would be lying around, so they didn't leave in a hurry.

"Oh, you saw Burt?", Finn asked his phone, and Kurt whipped around so quickly that anyone with lesser balance would've fallen over. "I think we're looking for him, actually", Finn managed to say, not quite back at his usual speed of talking.

Kurt stalked over there and held out a hand impatiently. Finn handed the phone over immediately. Bless his more or less drugged state. You wouldn't expect it, but Finn was actually a lot easier to deal with, with his thoughts at half speed.

"Where did you see him?", Kurt asked without preamble.

"What's up with Finn?", Puck asked. "Is that where my latest batch of cupcakes went?"

"You're still making those? But that's not the point, he'll be fine, where did you see my Dad?"

"At this warehouse, I was just here to -" Kurt cut him off before he could get any farther in his explanation.

"I don't care why you're there, where is the warehouse, and what made you mention it?"

"Okay, nevermind what's up with Finn, what's up with you?"

"Puck…"

"Well I noticed, because I didn't think Burt would be hanging out this side of town, and there was this weird dude he was arguing with. I don't know why, but that guy kind of gave me the creeps", Puck explained. "Not that Puckzilla gets scared of something, there was just something off about the guy."

"When was that?", Kurt asked. He actually wanted to know more details about the guy, in order to be sure it was even one of the people he thought it might be, but he couldn't waste time of that. If it wasn't he was just interrupting his Dad talking to an obnoxious costumer, or something, and under these circumstances he was pretty sure no one was going to have a problem with that.

"I don't know, like five minutes ago?"

"Where is it?", Kurt demanded bluntly. Puck rattled off the directions, and Kurt grabbed Finn by the arm to drag him back to the car, which looked like it surprised the tall teen, but he went along with without protest, anyway.

He hung up and wrestled Finn into the car, slamming the passenger door shut. Then he walked around as quickly as he could, and before Finn had even clicked his seatbelt, they were already moving. On the way he felt irrationally angry with all the regulations of traffic, specifically stop signs, red lights and speed limits. But he didn't break any, because he knew he drawing attention to their car right now could prove to be a very bad idea. Not that the Navigator didn't draw plenty of attention all by itself.

When he arrived there, he was surprised to see Puck was waiting for them. Now that they were there, Kurt actually remembered the location. His dad had rented out some space in that warehouse for storing parts that weren't as frequently needed, or simply too bulky to store in the garage.

Kurt got out quickly, and shot past Puck, not bothering with a greeting. He also didn't lock the car as he normally would, because Finn was still trying to figure out how to exit the vehicle without getting too closely acquainted with gravity.

The door to the warehouse was open, but Kurt needed an instant to orient himself in the room. He hadn't been there all too often, but he was reasonably certain that their storage compartment was to the left.

As soon as he heard voices in that direction he slowed down, careful not to make too much sound. He tried to find out how many people were there, by using his powers, but his heart was beating a little too loudly in his ears for him to focus properly.

"Ohio, huh? To be honest, I was a little disappointed when we didn't find you in Nevada", an unfamiliar voice said.

"You know as well as I do, that those code names don't really mean anything", his father's gruff voice responded.

"No, you're right. Though I hear Agent Arkansas went there on vacation once, as a child. I know what you're doing, though."

"And what would that be?", Burt asked.

"You're trying to stall. This warehouse, talking to me… and it would be a more or less successful tactic, if I were the only one of us looking in this town. But I've already dispatched two other agents to your house, so you might as well quit wasting both our time."

Kurt slowly crept closer, as he listened for his father to answer. He didn't though, so the unfamiliar man carried on.

"I honestly don't understand you, though. Even after all these years, I still don't get why you did all this. Go through all this trouble, for one text subject. Throwing away your career, for what? Playing mechanic in some backwater little town in the middle of nowhere?"

Puck and Finn had apparently followed Kurt, and he gestured for them to keep quiet. Finn was still in his weird mind set that made him happily go along with orders, while Puck looked vaguely intrigued. Kurt had no idea what Puck made of all this, but he seemed content to go along with it for now. Maybe he thought it was a prank or something. Puckzilla was always up for a good prank.

"The fact that you, and I'm guessing most of the other people at that place don't understand is the reason I don't want any career there", Burt said.

"Too bad. I always thought you could've been promising. But I guess that ship sailed as soon as you stole the military's property."

Kurt peered into the doorway, and almost forgot breathing at the sight in front of him. His Dad, in his usual coveralls talking calmly to a man in a grey suit. Who had a gun pointed at him.

He wasn't quite sure, what he was doing, to be honest, but Kurt knew he couldn't sit idly by. He checked the vicinity for other thought signatures, but came up empty.

And then he launched himself into the man's mind. The idea was really just to get him to drop the gun, but as the man crumbled to floor, out like a light, Kurt realized he may have been a little too forceful in his intrusion. He had never actually made anyone loose consciousness before with his power, and to have done so without meaning to left Kurt feeling a little startled.

Gun wasn't pointed at anybody, anymore though. Success.

His Dad looked at the man dumbfounded for a moment, and then looked at the doorway.

"What are you doing here?" Burt snapped as soon as he spotted Kurt in the doorway. Kurt entered the room.

"Saving you from the bad guy with the gun?", Kurt suggested.

"You shouldn't've come", Burt said. "Why are you even here?"

"There were people at the house. I got rid of them, but I had to find you."

"What people? Agents?", Burt asked. As Kurt nodded, he exclaimed, "And you got rid of them and then decided to come here? You know better than that! We've had this conversation!"

Indeed they had. Many times. Maybe that was why it had taken them so long to get around to a sex talk. They had been all too busy with the "what to do if shady government agents come to take you away to experiment on you." And most of the content of those talks had been to run like hell and never look back.

"Finn was there. At the house, and they thought he was who they were looking for. I couldn't just leave him there", Kurt protested.

Burt looked torn at that. He let out a sigh. "Still, you shouldn't have sought me out."

"Honestly? Maybe that original plan wasn't as well thought out as it could've been. Do yo really think I could just go off on my own and get myself a new identity, without any help? Much less with Finn involved."

"I shouldn't have married her", Burt said quietly. "We never should've dragged them into this."

"Dad, we didn't know they were still looking for us. It's been so many years, I didn't think…"

"Well, you don't know them as well as I do. I should've realized, they wouldn't let up so easily", Burt said, looking introspective.

"Okay, stop it right there, Dad. All of this talking about what we should've done isn't getting us anywhere. Maybe you're right, and getting attached here wasn't the smartest thing to do, but we didn't know that at the time, and you deserve happiness just like anyone else does. Marrying her wasn't a mistake. The more important thing is, what to we do now?"

"We go. I assume you took some things?", Burt asked with that intense look of his, making sure that his son had heeded at least a little bit of their original talks' warning.

"Okay, what is going on here?", Puck asked, entering the room with Finn following him.

"You brought them here?", Burt asked incredulously.

"I didn't bring Puck, he was the one who saw where you were. And I couldn't just leave Finn at home, what if they came back?", Kurt defended his actions. To be honest, he really didn't feel ready for all of this. Even though they had had that talk about what to do, now that there were actually people there, proof other than his powers for what his Dad had warned him about, he felt incredibly ill-prepared.

"Who is they? What's going on?", Puck asked, looking between the two Hummels. Apparently having people act mysteriously had lost its novelty, and now he wanted to solve the mystery.

"It's not your problem", Burt said gruffly. "The less you know, the better. Come on, Kurt let's go."

"Go where?"

"We'll figure that out soon, but you know we can't stay in Lima." And just then Kurt realized what that really meant. Sure, before Glee he couldn't wait to get out, and he'd sometimes lain awake, just hoping for some sinister government figures to come, so he would have an excuse for leaving, and starting over somewhere else.

Now, though.

Now he had Blaine, and Mercedes, and all his new directions friends, not to mention Finn and Carole, who were probably not included in his Dad's relocations plans. And he would just vanish from their lives. Not being able to say goodbye, no staying in touch with anybody… He wasn't particularly attached to Lima, the town, but the thought of never seeing any of the people again gave him a cold feeling in the pit of his stomach.

"So we're leaving, just like that?"

"You always knew that this could happen, Kurt. Don't try to argue with it now, you know perfectly well that we have to."

Of course he knew. But knowing and doing were two very different things.

"I… I could make him forget", he blurted out, pointing at the man on the floor. "I convinced the others that they were wrong, and I could just alter his memory, as if he'd never seen you here. And then they'd have to leave, thinking there was nothing in Lima, and never bother us again."

His father looked at him with one raised eyebrow. "And can you guarantee, one hundred percent, that he won't remember? I'm pretty sure you've never done something as elaborate before. And unless you can be completely sure, it's not something we can risk everything on", Burt said.

Kurt swallowed. He really wanted to say that he was sure, that he could just make this all go away, but he couldn't lie to his Dad. There were a lot of maybes in this plan, and betting everything on it wouldn't be a smart thing to do.

Still, there were few things Kurt could think of that he wanted more than just pretend all this had never happened and just go back to everything the way it was.

"You can try that thing anyway, it might give us more of a head start", Burt conceded.

"Oh", a voice from behind them said, and they both swirled around to the doorway, where the blonde from before was standing. "Well in order to get a head start, we would need to let you leave first, wouldn't we?"

* * *

><p>AN: Thanks so much for all the alerts and favs. But, if you have a moment, I'd love to hear what you think :)


	3. Chapter 3

Kurt felt his mouth go extremely dry. The blonde was far from alone, flanked by two large guys in similar suits, and that was only who they could see from the doorway. There could be more. He looked at his Dad, who had gone pale at the sight, and that just wasn't a good sign at all. Very few things could shake Burt Hummel, and those things that did were almost exclusively bad.

Like his Mom's death, for instance.

Burt turned to look at Kurt, and he gave an almost imperceptible nod. For a moment Kurt was confused, because hadn't the whole memory erasing scheme just been abandoned rather dramatically? By proving that it hadn't worked the first time?

And then he realized that his Dad was referring to his other power. It would just never have occurred to him on his own to use it, because he had been told for as long as he could remember never to use that one, especially on people other than his parents, because it was almost guaranteed to get them noticed. So it probably made sense that using it in that moment hadn't occurred to him right then.

But if discovery was what they were worried about, that ship had pretty much sailed already.

The blonde stalked into the room as if she owned the place. "Honestly, we hadn't quite expected this turn of events", she said conversationally. "I had forgotten the faces of both boys in that house, but now that I'm thinking about it, you do look awfully familiar", she said directed at Finn, who looked at her in confusion.

Kurt didn't say anything, but concentrated on his father. It had been such a long time since he'd practiced this particular skill that he was worried if he even remembered how to do it, but then his Dad waved his arm and the woman was slammed into the wall without there having been any sort of physical contact, so apparently he had done it right.

She yelled something to her colleagues that Kurt didn't quite understand, and they moved to the center of the room, one launching himself at Puck, while the other went after Finn.

Not looking all that menacing had its advantages, Kurt thought, and concentrated on Puck, to give him a power as well. He didn't look at the results and moved on to concentrating on Finn, who still seemed a little out of it.

Kurt's power worked promptly on Finn, and just an instant later the tall teen found himself with a superpower all for himself. And when Kurt saw the results, he groaned.

Why did fate, or whatever decided who got what when Kurt did this have to be so cruel? Because he certainly wouldn't have picked this.

Finn, the boy who had enough problems coordinating his movements properly in a largely two dimensional space was floating a few feet above the air, and looked completely helpless. The way he was flailing about made it look as though his goal was to perform a backflip in midair.

"Whoa!", Puck said from the other corner, but whether it was because his best friend was floating in the air, or because he had just simultaneously punched and electrocuted someone with his fists was hard to tell.

Kurt stopped concentrating on Finn, because that power really wasn't helpful at all, and only remembered when he heard a loud crash that he probably shouldn't have taken that power away while Finn was still floating.

But at least Puck and his Dad were doing splendidly with their borrowed super powers. Of course Burt had made acquaintance with that particular gift before, and knew he would get telekinesis and how to use it, but apparently Puck also got the hang of electro punching pretty quickly. And Kurt had to admit, it looked pretty impressive.

Kurt realized that they were lucky no one had pulled out a gun yet, but when he realized that it was because they were looking for him, and they wanted him alive, it was already too late. He had been to focused on getting everyone else their powers that he hadn't really been paying attention to his own immediate vicinity.

He turned around, but before he could do anything he already felt something being stuck to his neck and saw the man who had been in Finn's bedroom with the blonde smirking triumphantly. Kurt raised his hand, trying to get the device off, but he was barely half way through the movement before everything around him went black.

—-

He had no idea how long it was before he came to again, but it felt like fighting his way through a haze of fog inside his head. He tried to open his eyes, but the command got lost somewhere between his brain and his eyelids, so they stayed closed. He tried listening to his surroundings, but before he could identify any one sound he'd already drifted off again, so there was no way to know anything.

But waking up was important. Somehow, someway it was significant. Then again, it was comfortable right here, so why bother? Why not just stay like this, drifting, without a care in the world? If waking up didn't work, then sleep must be the better alternative, right?

He felt comfortable with that idea for a while, but something was bothering him. He couldn't pinpoint it, thoughts in his head barely even forming words, but something wasn't right. He wasn't supposed to be asleep right now, he was supposed to be doing… something.

But the thought wouldn't leave him, and it was as if his own subconscious was yelling at him to wake up. So he tried again. And was satisfied to find that there were, in fact, sounds around him. There was a beeping noise, and some shuffling papers.

Slowly, he blinked his eyes open, and found his retinas assaulted with way too bright light. When he lifted his hand to cover them, he realized that it was tied to something.

And that was enough of a shock to finally wake him up fully.

He was sitting in some sort of chair, tilted, like you would find at a dentists and his hands and feet were held by metal restraints attached to it. As he looked up, he saw a blonde woman there, and it took him a minute to connect her to the last events he remembered.

Now at least he knew how Finn had felt when he had been so out of it. It was like looking at the world through a large cotton ball. He wanted to say something, but the connection between his mouth and his brain was still malfunctioning. So what came out was more of a disconnected groan than any one word.

The blonde turned around when she heard that.

"Well you're awake early", she said, scrutinizing him over the rim of rounded glasses that looked completely out of place on her drawn features. "Huh. Maybe there was something to all of those reports, after all."

He wanted to ask 'what reports' but decided not to. Decided, as in, couldn't remember what mental resources would be required for that task. He tucked rather futilely at his restraints, without realizing that he probably wouldn't be successful that way.

She looked down at her clipboard, and scribbled something on the page. Kurt was waiting for her to say something interesting, maybe fill a few movie cliches and reveal the bad guys's plan or something like that, but was disappointed.

So, saying something, attempt number two. This time, he was delighted to be able to produce a somewhat disconnected groan, and to gain back enough sensory capacity to notice that his tongue felt oddly numb.

She gave him an amused sort of look. "You know, you're not really what I expected."

Whatever the hell that meant.

"H… how so?", Kurt managed to say, even though slightly slurred.

"The way you look, mostly", she said conversationally, and finally set the clipboard down, looking at him directly. "Not exactly pulled straight out of a DC Comic, if you catch my drift."

He supposed he did, but then, he doubted there were many people who could pull off artificial bat ears and wings convincingly. Or a cape. Then again, with the right patterns…

"I just don't really get how Agent Nevada and you managed to evade us for that long. Neither of you look like you have it in you. But I suppose that just makes sense. If people suspected where you really came from, you probably would have been retrieved long ago."

"Retrieved? Don't you mean kidnapped?", Kurt asked. Feeling was returning to his tongue, and possibly more importantly, he was starting to get better at processing her words.

"No, I mean retrieved. That's when you lose something that belongs to you, and then you get it back. But don't worry about it, those devices can make the best vocabulary a little wonky."

"I don't belong to anyone", Kurt protested. Also, his vocabulary was excellent. How dare she?

"Oh really? Because that's not what it says on my clipboard here", she said in an amused tone, picking up the clipboard and waving it around. Kurt had a tough time following the movement with his eyes, and it distracted him from the conversation for a moment.

"Well then your clipboard is wrong", Kurt managed to say.

"Are you sure? Because I happen to know for a fact that the people who wrote this here are very smart."

The fact that she was talking to him like a child was very frustrating. But not nearly as frustrating as the fact that he probably needed that.

"Just because you kidnapped me before doesn't mean you get to take me back", he managed to say.

"Oh, is that what you remember? Being kidnapped?" She looked at him with raised eyebrows. "I should probably write that down somewhere. Could mean your mental acuity isn't all it's cracked up to be."

"My ment… menstr… my thinking is fine." He had meant to spit the sentence out with a certain amount of venom, but his own confusion was making that a little difficult.

"Oh, yes, I can tell", she said with a mean smirk that gave Kurt the strong urge to punch her in the face. Or possibly get into a bitch slapping contest with her.

"My dad's not gonna let you get away with this", he said, lisping slightly on some of the s sounds, but with some credible conviction.

"I'm pretty sure whichever scientist it was whose test tube you crawled out of, he's going to be very understanding. It's like he's getting back his carefully constructed blastozyte."

"I don't crawl in test tubes."

"Well I doubt you would make a habit of that, you are a little large for those, now. But you've had a lot less contact with the inside of an ovary than most people I know."

That sounded like an insult, sort of, but was a little bit difficult for his befuddled brain to understand.

"I don't know what you're talking about", he said in a defiant tone, but in all honesty, he didn't. Not that he was an expert on the subject or particularly wanted to consider his parents creating him, but he was pretty sure that ovaries were involved in some form or another.

She took of the glasses and eyed him with genuine curiosity. "How, exactly, do you think it was you came into this world?", she asked.

"When a mommy and a daddy love each other very much…", he started reciting in a monotone, but didn't continue since he was pretty sure a grown woman such as herself would be familiar with the concept.

"True, that's what happened for most people. But not for you. Or any of our other test subjects, but I doubt you've met any of them so that might not be relevant to you as much…" she seemed to have lost her train of thought for a moment, but then looked at him more intensely.

"So, if I'm not mistaken, Agent Nevada and subject Sigma told you they were your biological parents?"

"Who?"

She looked down at the clipboard again. "Well you would probably refer to them as 'Burt and Melinda Hummel' but I can assure you, those names are fake."

Now that wasn't really a surprise. He knew that, when they had gotten him out of that strange facility they'd taken on new identities, but he was pretty sure whatever she had just said were not their real names. "They are my parents", he said in a tone that would be used to explain a rather basic concept to a particularly dense child. Or Finn, on some days.

"No, but they are liars. You don't have any parents. Not really, anyway. You are a genetic experiment, the result of some scientist - some of our nation's finest minds, mind you - mashing genetic sequences together. And you are a successful experiment if that makes you feel any better."

It didn't, really.

And it also sounded a little too far fetched to be true. Maybe it was the ridiculousness of the statement, but he realized with a jolt in that moment, that he could just look into her mind to see if she was lying. She had to be, obviously, but he wanted to convince himself.

"And once they were done mashing those genes together, you were implanted into the uterus of one of our dedicated female agents, to be brought to term. Maybe not the most romantic way of coming into existence, but at least your life has a clear purpose that's always been known. A lot of people would be very envious of that."

She flipped through the pages stuck to her clipboard, while Kurt was too busy trying to get his powers to work again to protest the things she was saying.

"I can even look up the name of the agent, if you're interested. Actually, I'm interested now, since it came up…" she kept on flipping, and then apparently found the page she was looking for. "Huh. Well that I didn't expect. Then again, I've surrogated more than once, and who would really keep track of these things…?"

She looked up and gave him a wry grin. "Looks like I'm the one you need to thank for your existence, subject 734AlphaB"

And that was a lie.

Of course, had to be.

After an initial moment of shock he was finally able to gather his wits about him enough to actually enter her mind.

What he found there was not encouraging at all.

She wasn't lying. At least at the surface level he was scrutinizing her at, it didn't seem that way. She really believed what she was saying.

But it was impossible that that was true, of course. Maybe she was just misinformed…

He delved deeper into her mind, in a way he usually wouldn't without hesitation, but he was shaken up enough by the thought that what she was saying could be true, that he didn't really pay attention to any of his usual reservations.

He looked at her memories, and it seemed as though she had actually been a surrogate mother more than once. Memories of walking around pregnant, looking down on those who weren't, because they weren't nearly as dedicated as her. Looking down on the male agents especially, because this was a level of commitment they would never be able to display. They could look after the little annoyances and claim some fame if their experiments turned out to be promising and not among those to be eliminated, but they could never be part of the process like this.

Who cared about stretch marks, when you could serve the future of your country and finally get a leg up over all the men in a military organization?

And her claim to have done that more than once looked to be true, as well. And in all of those memories the same pride was ringing through.

"Did you hear? The last one you carried didn't have any powers, she was eliminated", he heard a man in the memory say.

"So?", the woman asked back without any emotion in her voice. No real emotion in her head, either. "You do know we're not supposed to refer to them as 'he' or 'she'. If the supervisor heard you talk like that, he'd probably put you out of active care taking duty, and that doesn't look good on your resume."

The connotations were clear, looking into her head. 'Eliminated' meant exactly what it sounded like. A child that had grown inside of this woman, a little girl, had been put down, just because she hadn't had any super powers.

And the blonde didn't care. At all.

Six children in total, apparently (how had she kept up this figure?) and absolutely no emotional attachment. The only reaction being thinking she was superior to her male colleagues for being able to do that. What happened to any of them after they were removed from her body (by Cesarian section of course, who would want to deal with all the unpleasantness and unpredictability of a natural birth? Revolting, really) was of absolutely no cencern to her.

A little girl had been murdered for not being special enough.

And her 'mother' only cared about the way her short existence looked on her resume.

Kurt felt sick at the thought of that callousness and the idea of having any sort of connection to that place was even worse. It just couldn't be true, any of it.

Still there was no hint of a deception, no evidence of any lies. He started digging deeper, trying to find a hidden moment of regret, or maybe just a pang of guilt, any reaction that proved that she either wasn't as terrible a person as it looked right now, or evidence that she was lying, and whatever had happened, he was not a part of that history.

More and more quickly he began sifting through memories, judging and dismissing them, but not finding what he was looking for. She was telling the truth.

Which meant his 'parents' had been lying to him all his life.

He just wished he could go back to believing that lie.

In her mind there was no hidden trauma, no deeply buried emotional reactions, nothing.

When the cold realization came that he wouldn't find any of the things he was looking for and that his entire view of the world had just been turned upside down and all of it was true, he started pulling out of her mind and realized something wasn't quite right there.

The layers didn't feel the way they had when he had breached them. And when he noticed that, he became dimly aware of the sound of screaming somewhere around him.

He had done something wrong while looking through her head, but he wasn't quite sure what. Her conscious thoughts were twirling around in a way that he had never really seen before and it was a little disconcerting to see her formerly so organized thoughts unraveling.

Kurt severed their mental connection so quickly that it made him a little dizzy himself, but when he was back in his own head he could see her looking drastically different, clawing at her hair, mumbling something unintelligible, glasses discarded on the floor.

Most of what he'd always thought to be facts about his life were lies.

And he had just driven the woman who was closest to being his mother most spectacularly insane.

And to be honest,

He wasn't sorry.


	4. Chapter 4

Burt felt the telekinetic powers suddenly and swiftly failing him, and turned around just in time to see Kurt collapse with a weird device stuck to his neck. The man behind him caught him and rather suddenly the rest of the fighting stopped, even if Finn and Puck still had no idea what exactly it was that they were fighting for.

The blonde woman had managed to pick herself up off the floor and grinned at Burt. "Well, if that isn't interesting. I'm pretty sure we were just going for a return on investment here, but this… this might be just what we've been looking for all these years. Thanks ever so much for introducing that to us", she said to Burt.

And he felt more stupid than he had ever had before. Because of course, now they knew. About Kurt's other power. Telepathy was interesting to them, but they had plenty of other test subjects who had that, and the reason they were after him had always been that even though his power was pretty strong, he was completely healthy.

Now though… Kurt being able to project powers onto other people… That was a power they were after itself.

He spun around, trying to do something, anything to stop them from taking Kurt, but found himself face to face with the business end of a standard issue semiautomatic.

That explained why Finn and Puck had stopped fighting, too. Now that they had Kurt, the military people had no reason to hold back with their guns, and each of them was staring into a muzzle as well.

The gun that was pointing at Burt gestured towards the middle of the room and Burt reluctantly complied. Finn and Puck were going that way as well.

"Now, as much as I'd love to just have them shoot you for causing us all this trouble, I'm pretty sure my superiors wouldn't like that too much. And now this one counts as a win for me, so I'm willing to be lenient." She had this smirk on her face that just made Burt want to punch her, all the chivalrous rules about not beating women be damned.

She turned towards her minions. "Take care of these two and then wait for pick up. As I said, our bosses would be quite displeased if you don't deliver Agent Nevada, and from this point on that failure would be on you."

The men she was talking to nodded, and she left along with a few of the others.

And Kurt.

Seeing him dragged off like that, made Burt's blood boil, but he knew that if he made the wrong move, they would gladly take the excuse to kill him, and then there was nothing he could do to help his son. In the span of less than half an hour his life had been turned upside down, all the carefully laid plans smashed to bits.

He followed the people dragging his son away with his eyes, and tried to memorize every one of their faces, to vow revenge on. They would not get away with this. Because he wouldn't let them.

Then he looked back at the guys who were left. It was two of them, all the others had left. Not the best odds, since he, Finn and Puck were all unarmed, but decent enough.

"Secure him", one of the guys ordered, and the look on the other guy's face belied his willingness to do so. Apparently Burt had left a bit of a reputation with their agency. Good. Nervous people made mistakes.

The guy who had ordered kept his gun trained on Burt, but he had a distinct advantage. He knew they didn't want to kill him. They weren't allowed to, and if they did shoot him they would be in a world of trouble.

Burt stayed still and waited for the other guy to approach him with handcuffs. He was moving slowly, as if he was afraid of him pouncing. Both of them were keeping their attention on Burt, so he couldn't form eye contact with either of the boys without them noticing, but if that Puckerman kid was as competent in fight as he had appeared to be earlier, they probably had a shot.

Burt waited for the guy with the handcuffs to reach him, and held his hands together, ready to be handcuffed, which seemed to relax both of their captors a little. Burt probably looked like he was accepting defeat.

Except that he wasn't. And wasn't even quite sure if he was capable of that.

With as quick a movement as he could, he pulled up his elbows and drove one straight into the guy's sternum, spinning around at the same time.

The air was knocked from his opponent and Burt took the momentary confusion as his cue to punch him straight in the nose, bringing him to the ground.

When he looked around, he saw that Puckerman had lunged for their other opponent, and effectively pinned him down, punching him repeatedly.

Both of their opponents had military training, and Puckerman had been able to take down one of them. The nice next door mechanic and concerned parent in Burt felt a little worried at the fact that Kurt was friends with someone like that. The highly trained military operative that needed some allies was glad he was there.

Burt nodded at Puck, and working together, they swiftly tied both their opponents down securely. Burt pocketed both of their guns, since he didn't want to entrust either teenager with them at this point.

He briefly considered using those guns, but the two of them weren't much of a liability, and he didn't particularly want to kill someone in front of Finn. Or Puck, but that boy would probably handle something like that much better.

Speaking of Finn…

"What the hell is even going on here?"

Apparently he had gotten over his confusion and was now realizing just what had happened here. Too bad there really wasn't any time to explain it to him right now.

"The less you know, the better. And I don't really have time to explain, anyway, so just go back home, both of you, and let me handle it."

"Handle what? What are you gonna do? Why did they take Kurt?" Finn looked a little lost at being brushed off like that.

"And do you really think you can go up against these guys all by yourself?", Puck asked, looking a little doubtful.

"This is something that goes a little beyond what two teenagers can handle, no offense, boys", Burt said while turning to leave.

"Is it something that a middle aged mechanic can handle all alone?", Puck asked.

"Can someone please explain what's going on here?", Finn said again.

"There's more to this middle aged mechanic than you know, Puckerman. And I meant it, when I said you're better off not knowing. Knowing makes you a target, and I can't drag you into this any further. You shouldn't even have been here for this, nothing I can do about it, now, but still."

"Yeah, cause you obviously didn't need any help", Puck remarked sarcastically.

Finn looked thoughtful. "What did Kurt mean when he talked about you guys leaving? Did you mean that? Leave, and never come back? What about my mom?" 'And me' was left unspoken.

"Look, Finn, I'm sorry that it's come to this, but what happened here today? This changes everything. I need to go and get Kurt back, and then we both need to make sure these people never find us again. I'd like to tell you all about this, I'd like to be able to talk about this with your mother, but the fact of the matter is, that anything I tell you is going to put you in danger, and I can't do that."

"Shouldn't I get a say in this? And my mom? Are you just going to decide what's best for us? I mean, Puck's right, I don't know what all this is, who those people are, but I'm pretty sure getting Kurt back isn't all that easy, and you need help. I mean, I'm his big brother now, and stuff, right? I'm supposed to be protective."

"Finn, I know you mean well, but you don't know who I'm up against. I know, and I on't want to drag anybody into this. So thanks for offering, but this is Kurt's problem and my problem, but not yours." Burt started to leave, because he had a feeling he wouldn't be able to resist the offer that much longer. Ever since his 'wife's' death, he had been desperate for an ally, someone who was on his side, who he could talk about all this mess with, but as much as he loved her, he hadn't even dared to open up to her about this.

A pair of teenagers, only one of which he really knew, didn't even compare.

Then again…

Part of the reason he'd never been able to talk to anyone about this, was the fact, that if he did, nobody was likely to believe him. Spinning tales of superpowers and government conspiracies wasn't exactly what one would call believable.

But with what these two boys had already seen this day, believing wouldn't be the problem.

"We're supposed to be a family, aren't we? So my little brother getting kidnapped is my problem", Finn insisted. Burt had to resists the urge to tell him, that Kurt was actually older than him, but they had thought it cautious way back when to put some other date as his birthday, because the real date might be something the agents could be looking for. And that randomly picked date just happened to be after Finn's birthday.

But making people believe Kurt was younger than he actually was had never been an issue.

Burt turned back around. "Fine. I could tell you. I could use some help, and you have a point. You should be in the loop. But you don't know what you're really asking, here, Finn. I need you to understand that this is very serious, and if I tell you it's going to put you in real, physical danger. Whatever happens next could seriously disrupt your life if you're a part of it, and once I tell you, there's no putting it back in the bottle. So I need you to make a choice. Do you really want to be a part of this?"

Finn looked at him and gulped. Burt wasn't sure if Finn quite understood the gravity of this all just yet, but how could he, really, without knowing anything more about it.

Just like in the matrix. Do you want to take the blue pill, or the red one? Do you want to stay blissfully ignorant or find out what's really going on?

Slowly, Finn nodded.

"You sure?", Burt asked, looking at Finn intently.

"Yeah. Yeah I'm sure", Finn said, and it seemed to be to convince himself of that as much as Burt.

"What about him?", Burt wanted to know, nodding towards Puck. "Do you think he's trustworthy?" Burt really hoped the answer to be yes. Because he was much more useful an ally than Finn was, and also Burt wasn't personally invested in that kid's safety. Probably selfish of him, but right now he couldn't really think about som poor kid's parents.

"I guess…", Finn said, and the doubt was evident in his voice.

Just then Burt remembered something. "Aside from getting your girlfriend pregnant, is he someone you'd want to be on the same team with?"

"Yeah", Finn said, lookign oddly relived at being able to just ignore a past transgression.

"So, do you want to get dragged into this, too?" Burt asked Puck.

"Yeah, sure", Puck said, and looked a little too relaxed for Burt's taste, but it didn't matter all that much.

"Good, then let's go, we don't have any more time to waste"

It was an odd thing, having to hotwire a car that you owned, but Kurt had of course taken the keys with him. He had, mercifully, in his hurry forgotten to lock it, so that was a few moments saved.

Now they were driving along the road Burt was sure they would take. Well almost a hundred percent sure. They weren't concerned with getting noticed, really, because there wasn't really anyone who could do them harm, and he knew their destination, and the quickest way to get there.

The things he knew about them required a whole skill set that he hadn't needed to use in over ten years, but it was frighteningly easy to slip back into their way of thinking. Just more of a reminder that he had once been one of them. He really wished he didn't have that in his past, but he couldn't really imagine what his life would have been like if it wasn't.

For instance he would never have met either Sigma or Kurt, and that was something he wouldn't have want to miss. It was kind of strange how attached he'd grown to these two so quickly.

But it was maybe the most significant part of his entire history. Because growing attached, allowing himself real emotions when all of them were supposed to be robots was what made him different from all his former coworkers. From every one in that facility, really.

Taking Finn and Puck with him probably wasn't the greatest idea, to be honest. He didn't have much of a plan of attack, hadn't had time to plan one. Of course there had been contingency plans, but barely any were helpful right now. He had some plans on how to get in to the facility should he ever need to free Kurt, but that was complicated. If he didn't have to use any of those, it would be preferable.

"So, are you going to tell us what's going on, now, or… whenever?", Puck wanted to know. Of course there was that, too. They needed to be informed, but they didn't really have time for that.

"Right now, we need to try to get Kurt back before they can take him to their destination. Because it's going to be much more difficult to get him out if he's already there. They are probably using a black truck, and we need to find a way to…"

Before he could finish that thought, a black truck appeared on the horizon. But it wasn't driving. In fact it was standing across the road, cab bent from the trailer at an odd angle.

"Like that one?", Finn asked helpfully as Burt slowed down and parked the car. He got out and ran towards the truck, ignoring the two boys following him. Just as they approached someone was climbing out the back door. For a moment Burt thought about reaching for his gun, but then he saw that it was the dark blue of the Dalton uniform.

"Kurt!", he yelled, and quickened his pace. His son turned around, and for a moment Burt was shocked to see him. He was slightly disheveled, hair sticking up at odd angles and his clothes wrinkled in a way you'd rarely ever see from Kurt, but that wasn't really the issue.

The look on his face…

It was chilling, to say the least. As he got closer Burt realized that a whimpering noise was coming from inside the trailer and through the door he could see several agents looking with rapt fascination at various inanimate objects as if they were the only things of any significance in their lives. He looked at the cab and saw the driver still seated with his hands on the wheel looking completely vacant, blinking very slowly.

That wasn't good. Not at all.

When Kurt had been little and gotten upset, Burt had sometimes seen things like this, before he'd been able to teach him not to use his telepathy offensively. These days Kurt was sometimes tempted to use his powers for manipulation, but not as a weapon. Burt doubted Kurt had even been quite aware of the fact that he could use them as a weapon.

But he'd done a number on all of these people. Which meant he'd probably gotten very upset, and from the way he looked he probably still was. And just like all of the test subjects, when they got upset, they were volatile.

And the look Kurt was fixing on Burt right now made him worry a lot.

"Kurt, are you okay?", he asked as calmly as possible when he got within hearing range.

"Peachy", Kurt replied with a sneer. "Except for the fact that you lied to me", he added after a moment, and Burt knew that this was going to be a problem.

"What do you mean?", Burt asked calmly, but he decided to keep his distance, gesturing for the boys to stay back, as well.

"Throw a fucking dart. Pretty much everything, right?" Hearing Kurt use profanity like that was a little jarring. He barely ever swore, usually found a lot more creative ways to express his displeasre.

"Kurt, what are you talking about?", Burt asked again, but he had a feeling he already knew. Apparently they had told Kurt some things that he wasn't happy to hear. And paid with their sanity for it.

"Don't know? Let me jog your memory a little, then." That was the only warning Burt got, before his mind was assaulted in a way that he'd never experienced before. He knew what it felt like when Kurt read your thoughts, but this was something completely different. Kurt barely ever read his thoughts, because he trusted him.

Not so much anymore.

Burt grabbed at his head that felt like it was splitting in two and let out a groan.

"How about the fact that you're not actually my father? How about the fact that these… these people created me? How about the fact that you were one of them?", Kurt yelled the last part. "Was this some sort of game? A new experiment, see how someone like me would fare in the real world?"

Burt could barely hear the accusations over the cacophony in his head, but he knew he had to fight it.

"Kurt, stop", he managed to choke out. "Look, I will explain, you just need to…" He reached up towards his nose and was surprised to find his hand come back bloody. He was also surprised to see that his one hand looked like two now.

"Like you've explained before? To tell me more lies? I don't think so."

"You can check, you'll know if I'm lying, just please stop digging, okay? I'll tell you what you want to know and then you can decide if you actually want to do this", Burt pleaded, and held up his hand.

Kurt looked startled at seeing the bloody hand and the assault on Burt's thoughts stopped immediately.

They stared at each other, and Burt did his best to look trustworthy, tried to remind Kurt of who he was, and was relieved when his son answered with one short nod.

"Fine. Explain. But if you're lying, you'll regret it."


	5. Chapter 5

Slowly Kurt had calmed down a little. He had even agreed that talking about these things while in the middle of a road wasn't the best idea, so they'd gone home. Burt had tried to say something about how they needed to get moving somewhere else but Kurt wouldn't have any of it.

Driving back to the house felt oddly mundane, now, as though this entire afternoon and all the things it brought had never happened, and they could just go back to living their lives the way they always had, but after what he'd been told he doubted things would ever be the same again.

The car ride back had been tense and silent, with both Puck and Finn sensing there was something wrong, but not daring to ask again, after a few awkward attempts at making conversation. They probably thought both Hummels had gone crazy, but Kurt couldn't care less about that. Not that he ever gave much stock into other people's opinions, but this time his thoughts were so far from anything concerning those two that he had to strain to even remember their names.

When they pulled into the drive way he saw Blaine's car, and then noticed Blaine looking a little lost ringing the doorbell for what was probably at least a second time. It occurred to Kurt just now, that they had been supposed to meet for coffee and that he had no idea where his cell phone was. Probably should have tried to retrieve that.

Seeing Blaine gave him mixed feelings. Just a few hours ago he had been on cloud nine just thinking about his boyfriend, the fact that he even had a boyfriend, and now he had no idea who he even was, let alone how to deal with other people, what his future would be like. But seeing Blaine there, someone who he trusted and depended on was a big relief.

"Kurt! I was wondering where you were, you didn't show up for coffee, and I couldn't reach you on your cell phone, so I thought…" Kurt was greeted with when he opened the door and climbed out of the car.

"… Or am I being too pushy, right now?", he asked as he saw everyone else getting out of the car. "Did I miss something?"

"It might be better if you just went home, kid", Burt said. "There's some stuff going on that I don't want to drag you into."

"Huh? Why, what happened?", Blaine asked, for once forgetting his usually undying need to be polite to Burt.

"It's better for you not to know…" Burt started, but Kurt cut him off. "I want him to. Blaine, please stay."

"Are you sure…?", Burt asked and looked at him intently, but Kurt was not in the mood to deal with his Dad's paranoia right now. They had been found already, the thing that had always been the worst case scenario was here, what could telling people possibly do? And if Burt had already taken Finn and Puck along for the ride, Kurt felt it was well within his rights to tell Blaine, too.

Besides, Kurt wasn't so sure if he should really trust Burt right now. After being lied to all his life and never even noticing, though he was a telepath, he was right to be wary. Honestly, he was still not sure if letting Burt tell him was the best idea, and just looking into his head wouldn't be preferable, but he felt like he could still hear the blonde woman's screams.

Some new information couldn't make you change your opinion of someone you loved enough to want to do that to them.

"Let's go inside", Kurt said, and everyone followed him, Blaine exchanging questioning looks with Finn and Puck when Kurt wouldn't meet his eyes.

Kurt went straight into the living room, which looked exactly the same as it had the last time he had been there, but still felt completely foreign, as if he didn't belong there. Or any place that was intended for use by normal people. Real people.

Once everyone was inside, Kurt stood in one corner and gestured for everyone to sit down.

"Don't you want to sit?", Blaine asked, and Kurt just shook his head. Sitting just didn't seem compatible with his current disposition.

Burt looked at his son warily, but then sat down as well.

"Do you want to…", Burt started asking, but Kurt cut him off again. "Just get on with it. I'll know when you're lying, so try not to", he said coldly.

"Okay", Burt said, and looked around the room apprehensively. He took a deep breath. "Before I start, I need you to understand that I didn't tell you this whole story before, because I wanted to protect you. I didn't do that to deceive you, I did it, because I love you and I felt back when you were young that it was easier for you to hear a slightly different version."

"Fundamentally different", Kurt interjected.

"Both your mom and I thought it would be better for you. Maybe we were wrong, that's for you to decide, but we didn't mean any harm. But you are old enough to know the full story, so here goes…"

Secret government project. Now that was something most people couldn't put on their resume. Of course, even the people that it would apply to wouldn't put it on their resume, because it was top secret.

Everyone at Project Bluebird carried themselves with such a gravity that it felt wrong to be this excited to be drafted for it, but newly designated Agent Nevada couldn't help but be proud.

Out of all the military personnel they could've chosen, it was him. His qualifications, the quality of his work, and suddenly there he was, one of the top fifty agents assigned to one of America's most secretive and significant military projects.

Sure, he'd never actually been to Nevada, but apparently it didn't matter what you were codenamed for. What mattered was being important enough to actually get a codename and know the whole scope of the operation.

Walking around the compound in the discreet black suit that was his new uniform felt great. But going where he was going right now, he was filled with some level of trepidation. Being picked for superior special ops fighting training and having proven your worth in more than one high risk military operation was one thing…

… taking care of a baby was another. Or toddler. Or whatever. Apparently the kid could be between 6 months and two years old when he was assigned to it, and right now he had no information whatsoever as to which. He'd heard the briefing, and his ears were practically ringing from all the times he'd been told how important it was to observe these children and their abilities and how it was crucial to be judged by trained military professionals of the highest qualifications.

Still, he'd never really been good with children, and didn't know what to do at all. Because he'd asked, and if the child wasn't that old, diaper duty could definitely be on the itinerary.

But they weren't really children, he tried to remind himself. Not normal ones, anyway, and while you were supposed to gain their trust the one thing that was absolutely prohibited was getting emotionally attached. Best to refer to them only as test subjects of experiments, and not call them he or she because they were military assets, not real people. He wasn't too sure how he felt about that rule, but that was not the point. Following orders. He was good at that.

So maybe not being great with children would turn out to be a blessing. Easier not to grow attached when taking care of it was just an annoyance.

He could do this. He was trained to be able to deal with unknown situations. He'd adapt and handle this just fine.

With that in mind, he pushed open the door to the lab he was told to report to for his first assignment.

"Oh there you are", a voice greeted him in an annoyed tone.

"08.00 just like I was told", Agent Nevada answered after checking his watch. He was right on time.

"Am I supposed to be impressed?" the woman said and came out into view. She was wearing an immaculate lab coat, brown hair pulled back into a strict bun, with one or to strands escaping and finding their way onto her face. She pushed her glasses up, and Burt couldn't help but find her light green eyes somehow pretty.

But looks didn't really mean anything around here. Agent Maine was also quite attractive, but talking to her for more than a few minutes was enough to know that she was a total bitch.

"I'm Agent Nevada, here to pick up my assignment", he said, choosing to ignore her attitude.

"Yes, I know that. I have this thing called a schedule which tells me when a bunch of punctual people are going to show up during the day."

Burt wasn't quite sure what to say to that, so he decided to wait for her.

"Anyway, he's over there", she said, gesturing towards one area of the confusingly laid out lab.

"We're not supposed to call them he or she", Agent Nevada noted.

"No, you're not supposed to call them that. I don't follow the same rules, and when I say he I do it, so I don't need to waste another sentence telling you your test subject is male. And now you made me waste even more sentences explaining that to you."

"What, are you reaching your quota for the day?", Burt shot back. She looked up at him briefly with a look he couldn't quite read.

"His designation is 734", she said, and started walking towards the area she had indicated before, which Burt took as his cure to follow.

"Don't they usually have these greek letters in their names?", he asked while they were walking.

"You're new at this, aren't you? Those letters are what you're there to determine. At first all subjects got designated with greek letters, but once those ran out, they switched to a new system. The numbers are running indexes of all the created zygotes, no matter what their status, the latin letter after the name indicate their power level, and the greek letter indicates which priority their testing has. Both of which can only be determined after thorough examination and observation. Once both those values are assigned you don't need to observe any more and you'll receive a different test subject. Make sense?", she asked as she spun around in front of a door. Burt nodded.

"Good. You have all the guideline protocols and you've been briefed, so now you need to sign this", she said, and handed him a clipboard that had been hanging next to the door. "This means that you've officially taken guardianship of subject 734 and that he's no longer the responsibility of this lab."

"Okay. Um… pen?", he asked when he realized she hadn't given him one.

"You do know you're gonna have to write down your observations, don't you? You're gonna have some trouble with that without a pen", she said, but fumbled around in her coat pocket anyway, handing him a completely nondescript pen.

He scribbled his signature down at the form, and had to forcefully remind himself that he was Agent Nevada now and not Burt anymore, and then held the pen back for her. She raised her eyebrows. "You're probably the first Agent who's ever given back a pen after asking me for one", she commented somewhat impressed.

"You might find I'm full of surprises", he said with a charming grin as she put the pen back into her pocket. As she did, he noticed her ID tag. No title, no first or last name, just one word: Sigma.

Interesting.

"Yeah well I'm used to Agents saying that, and you know what? None of you are." She pushed open the door. "Meet your new charge."

She led him into a small nondescript white room with a small equally white playpen in it. In the playpen was a kid, no more than a year old with bright blue eyes and a wide grin on his face as they opened the door.

Sigma stepped in and Agent Nevada followed her. "Hey there", she said in a friendly tone and knelt down to talk to the kid. "This here is Agent Nevada. He's going to be your new friend, and take care of you. So you be nice to him, alright?"

Agent Nevada wasn't sure how much of that speech the little guy had actually understood, but he nodded enthusiastically. It. The test subject. It nodded enthusiastically. He'd have to do some work to get used to thinking that…

Sigma looked completely different dealing with the kid. She picked him up and rocked him a little, whispering something in his ears. A little more of that tenderness when dealing with grown ups would probably make her a lot more pleasant to deal with.

"Here, take him", she said softly and handed him the kid. It was lighter than he'd expected, and immediately started trying to climb onto the Agent's head. If he'd been someone who liked kids, and if this was a regular kid, he'd probably have described him as cute.

"You know where to go?", she asked, and fussed about the test subject's hair a little.

"Yes. The room has everything, or do I need to take anything?", Agent Nevada asked.

"Everything is there, including a schedule and detailed instructions on how to deal with certain situations. I'm sure a more or less intelligent guy like you can figure it out."

"Okay then", he said. "See you."

And with that he left the lab, with the little guy still trying to climb his head and giggling. He had no idea if that would mean he'd be easier to deal with, or harder.

Subject 734 was a lively kid, to be sure. Agent Nevada had noticed that immediately, and if he were completely honest (which he couldn't be, of course) he'd taken somewhat of a liking to that. It made dealing with him more pleasant, especially since he was pretty vocal about what he needed, so Agent Nevada got a hang of dealing with him rather quickly.

He hadn't really considered that that was something out of the ordinary here, until he'd first went to one of the strictly organized socializing events for test subjects of similar age groups. Which was basically a play date. The subjects were supposed to be supplied with everything they could possibly need to develop well, they were supposed to be read to, got access to a great variety of toys and some pretty advanced education for their ages.

And one thing that helped children out in the real world develop was of course playing with other children, so every day at 14:00 hours there was a playgroup which was organized by Sigma's lab.

Really, it was almost like parents taking their children to the playground, all Agents trying to measure their charge's development in comparison to the others, just like parents. Except that the parents were better dressed and the children more depressing.

Most of the children were, to say it scientifically, weird.

One girl kept spinning in a circle with absolutely no concern for the outside world, while one boy kept staring at his shoes and glaring at anyone daring to ask his attention.

Subject 734 looked a little out of place with all those very quiet kids that seemed to barely even acknowledge each other's presence. There was one girl there, who seemed more like him and they started building a sand castle together, giggling whenever they came up with a particularly great way of decorating it.

"Hey", one Agent next to Agent Nevada said and held out his hand. "You're new here, right? I'm Agent Washington, but everybody calls me Wash."

Agent Nevada shook his hand. "Yeah, I'm Agent Nevada. And I haven't been here long enough to come up with a good nickname, so that's just what I'm called."

"Right. Well, people around here will probably come up with one pretty soon, so you don't need to worry about that." Wash sat down on the bench next to him. "Things around here are less formal than what you're probably used to from the military, but way more competitive."

"Well, it's definitely not like any other project I've ever worked at."

"Didn't sign up for babysitting duties, huh? But don't worry, that's a big part of what we do, but not all. And in the end this is important work, and once the scientists get a little further this division is going to shape up to be one of the most important of all."

"I think I've heard that before", Agent Nevada mused. It sounded a lot like the speech he'd been given during his orientation after his transfer to this unit."

Wash gave a short laugh. "Yeah, it's not that original. But sometimes it's what you have to tell yourself when you're looking at a dirty diaper and wondering, 'how did this become my life?'"

"Probably. Which one's yours?", Nevada asked, even though he wasn't quite sure if that was the proper phrasing.

"That one, over there", Wash said, pointing at a girl who was doing an expert job at chewing on her bright pink dress. "It's one of the most promising experiments, actually."

"Well… is she supposed to be doing that, though?", Nevada asked, wondering vaguely if maybe someone should interfere.

"Not really, but I've tried to get her to stop and it just doesn't work. It needs something to distract from its pain, and this is just what it chose."

"What pain?", Nevada asked, concerned.

"Well most of them have some health problems, usually worse for the more powerful ones, so that's just par for the course. I could get the file and read out everything that's wrong with it, but suffice it to say, it's not pleasant." The casual way Wash said that seemed to prove that the other Agents had an easier time dealing with not getting emotionally attached. "So which one's yours?"

"That one", Burt said, pointing at subject 734, who was now playing hide and go seek with the little girl.

"Oh. Huh. Well, not to disappoint you on your first assignment, but I don't think it's going to have any powers. The healthy ones never do, and it looks like it's fine from here."

"What happens if it doesn't?" Agent Nevada was happy that he managed to say it, because he'd been close to misspeaking.

"Oh those? They get terminated, usually", Wash said, and turned to look back at the more or less playing kids.

Agent Nevada didn't really believe that until a week later his subjects' playmate didn't show up. And never did again, after that.


End file.
